The Diary of Samuel Pepys

by Samuel Pepys

29th. The great streets in the City are marked out with piles drove into the ground; and if ever it be built in that form with so fair streets, it will be a noble sight. To a periwigg-maker's and there bought two periwiggs, mighty fine indeed; too fine, I thought, for me; but he persuaded me, and I did buy them for 4l. 10s. the two. To the Bull-Head Taverne, whither was brought my French gun; and one Truelocke, the famous gunsmith, that is a mighty ingenious man, did take my gun in pieces, and made me understand the secrets thereof: and upon the whole I do find it a very good piece of work, and truly wrought; but for certain not a thing to be used much with safety: and he do find that this very gun was never yet shot off.

30th. To see the silly play of my Lady Newcastle's, [Margaret, daughter of Thomas Lucas of Colchester, and sister to John Lord Lucas, married William Marquis of Newcastle, created a Duke 1664.] called "The Humourous Lovers;" the most silly thing that ever came upon a stage. I was sick to see it, but yet would not but have seen it, that I might the better understand her.

31st. To church; and with my mourning, very handsome, and new periwigg, make a great show. Walked to my Lord Treasurer's, where the King, Duke of York, and the Caball, and much company without; and a fine day. Anon come out from the Caball my Lord Hollis and Mr. H. Coventry, [Third son of Thomas first Lord Coventry; after the Restoration made a Groom of the Bedchamber, and elected M.P. for Droitwich. In 1664 he was sent Envoy Extraordinary to Sweden, where he remained two years, and was again employed on an Embassy to the same Court in 1671. He also succeeded in negotiating the peace at Breda here alluded to, and in 1672 became Secretary of State; which office he resigned in 1679, on account of ill health. He died unmarried, Dec. 7, 1686.] who, it is conceived, have received their instructions from the King this day; they being to begin their journey towards their treaty at Bredagh speedily, their passes being come. Here I saw the Lady Northumberland [Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Theophilus Earl of Suffolk, wife of Algernon tenth Earl of Northumberland.] and her daughter-in-law (my Lord Treasurer's daughter) my Lady Piercy, a beautiful lady indeed. [Lady Elizabeth Wriothesly, daughter to the Earl of Southampton, married Joscelin Lord Percy.] The month shuts up only with great desires of peace in all of us, and a belief that we shall have a peace, in most people if it can be had on any terms, for there is a necessity of it; for we cannot go on with the war, and our masters are afraid to come to depend upon the good will of the Parliament any more, as I do hear.

APRIL 1st. 1667. To White Hall, and there had the good fortune to walk with Sir W. Coventry into the garden, and there read our melancholy letter to the Duke of York, which he likes. And so to talk: and he flatly owns that we must have a peace, for we cannot set out a fleet; and (to use his own words) he fears that we shall soon have enough of fighting in this new way that we have thought on for this year. He bemoans the want of money, and discovers himself jealous that Sir G. Carteret do not look after or concern himself for getting money; and did further say, that he and my Lord Chancellor do at this very day labour all they can to vilify this new way of raising money, and making it payable as it now is into the Exchequer; and that in pursuance hereof my Lord Chancellor hath prevailed with the King in the close of his speech to the House to say, that he did hope to see them come to give money as it used to be given, without so many provisos, meaning this new method of the Act. Mrs. Rebecca Allen, poor heart! come to desire favour for her husband, who is clapt up, being a Lieutenant, for sending a challenge to his Captain in the most saucy, base language that could be writ. I perceive Sir W. Coventry is wholly resolved to bring him to punishment; for "bear with this," says he, "and no discipline shall ever be expected." Sir J. Minnes did tell of the discovery of his own great- grandfather's murder, fifteen years after he was murdered.

3rd. To the Duke of York, where Sir G. Carteret did say that he had no funds to raise money on; and being asked by Sir W. Coventry whether the eleven months' tax was not a fund, he answered "No," that the banquers would not lend money upon it. Then Sir W. Coventry burst out and said he did supplicate His Royal Highness, and would do the same to the King, that he would remember who they were that did persuade the King from parting with the Chimney-money to the Parliament, and taking that in lieu which they would certainly have given, and which would have raised infallibly ready-money; meaning the bankers and the farmers of the Chimney-money, (whereof Sir G. Carteret, I think, is one;) saying plainly, that whoever did advise the King to that, did as much as in them lay cut the King's throat, and did wholly betray him. To which the Duke of York did assent; and remembered that the King did say again and again at the time, that he was assured, and did fully believe, the money would be raised presently upon a land-tax, This put us all into a stound. And Sir W. Coventry went on to declare that he was glad he was come to have so lately concern in the Navy as he hath, for he cannot now give any good account of the Navy business; and that all his work now was to be able to provide such orders as would justify His Royal Highness in business when it shall be called to account; and that he do do, not concerning himself whether they are or can be performed, or no: and that when it comes to be examined and falls on my Lord Treasurer, he cannot help it, whatever the issue of it shall be. One thing more Sir W. Coventry did say to the Duke of York, when I moved again, that of about 9000l. debt to Lanyon at Plymouth, he might pay 3700l. worth of prize-goods that he bought lately at the candle out of this debt due to him from the King; and the Duke of York, and Sir G. Carteret, and Lord Barkeley, saying all of them that my Lord Ashly would not be got to yield it, who is Treasurer of the Prizes: Sir W. Coventry did plainly desire that it might be declared whether the proceeds of the prizes were to go to the helping on of the war, or no; and if it were, how then this could be denied. Which put them all into another stound; and it is true, God forgive us! Thence to the chapel, and there by chance hear that Dr. Crewe is to preach; and so into the organ loft, where I met Mr. Carteret, and my Lady Jemimah, and Sir Thomas Crewe's two daughters, and Dr. Childe playing: and Dr. Crewe did make a very pretty, neat, sober, honest sermon; and delivered it very readily, decently, and gravely, beyond his years: so as I was exceedingly taken with it, and I believe the whole chapel, he being but young; but his manner of his delivery I do like exceedingly. His text was, "But first seek the kingdom of God, and all things shall be added unto you." The Dutch letters are come, and say that the Dutch have ordered a passe to be sent for our Commissioners, and that it is now upon the way coming with a trumpeter blinded, as is usual. But I perceive every body begins to doubt the success of the treaty, all their hopes being only that if it can be had on any terms, the Chancellor will have it; for he dare not come before a Parliament, nor a great many more of the courtiers, and the King himself do declare he do not desire it, nor intend but on a strait; which God defend him from! Here I hear how the King is not so well pleased of this marriage between the Duke of Richmond and Mrs. Stewart, as is talked; and that he by a wile did fetch her to the Beare, at the Bridge-foot, where a coach was ready, and they are stole away into Kent without the King's leave; and that the King hath said he will never see her more: but people do think that it is only a trick. This day I saw Prince Rupert abroad in the vane-room, pretty well as he used to be, and looks as well, only something appears to be under his periwigg on the crown of his head.

4th. I find the Duke of Albemarle at dinner with sorry company, some of his officers of the Army: dirty dishes and a nasty wife at table, and had meat, of which I made but an ill dinner. Pretty to hear how she talked against Captain Du Tel, the Frenchman, that the Prince and her husband put out the last year; and how, says she, the Duke of York hath made him for his good services his capbearer, yet he fired more shot into the Prince's ship, and others of the King's ships, than of the enemy. And the Duke of Albemarle did confirm it, and that somebody in the fight did cry out that a little Dutchman by his ship did plague him more than any other; upon which they were going to order him to be sunk, when they looked and found it was Du Tell, who, as the Duke of Albemarle says, had killed several men in several of our ships. He said, but for his interest, which he knew he had at Court, he had hanged him at the yard's-arm without staying for a Court-martiall. One Colonell Howard, at the table, magnified the Duke of Albemarle's fight in June last, as being a greater action than ever was done by Caesar. The Duke of Albemarle did say it had been no great action, had all his number fought, as they should have done, to have beat; the Dutch: but of his 55 ships, not above 25 fought. He did give an account that it was a fight he was forced to: the Dutch being come in his way, and he being ordered to the buoy of the Nore, he could not pass by them without fighting, nor avoid them without great disadvantage and dishonour, (and this Sir G. Carteret, I afterwards giving him an account of what he said, says that it is true that he was ordered up to the Nore.) But I remember he said, had all his captains fought, he would no more have doubted to have beat the Dutch with all their number, than to eat the apple that lay on his trencher. My Lady Duchesse, among other things, discoursed of the wisdom of dividing the fleet; which the Generall said nothing to, though he knew well that it come from themselves in the fleet, and was brought up hither by Sir Edward Spragge. Colonell Howard, asking how the Prince did, the Duke of Albemarle answering "Pretty well," the other replied, "But not so well as to go to sea again."—" How!" says the Duchesse, "what should he go for, if he were well, for there are no ships for him to command? And so you have brought your hogs to a fair market," said she. It was pretty to hear the Duke of Albemarle himself to wish that they would come on our ground (meaning the French), for that he! would pay them so as to make them glad to go back to France again; which was like a general, but not like an admiral. One at the table told an odd passage in this late plague: that at Petersfield (I think he said) one side of the street had every house almost infected through the town, and the other, not one shut up. I made Sir G. Carteret merry with telling him how many land-admirals we are to have this year: Allen at Plymouth, Holmes at Portsmouth, Spragge for Medway, Teddiman at Dover, Smith to the Northward, and Harman to the Southward. With Sir Stephen Fox talking of the sad condition of the King's purse, and affairs thereby; and how sad the King's life must be, to pass by his officers every hour, that are four years behind hand unpaid. Sir W. Coventry tells me plainly, that to all future complaints of lack of money he will answer but with the shrug of the shoulder; which methought did come to my heart, to see him to begin to abandon the King's affairs, and let them sink or swim. My wife had been to day at White Hall to the Maunday, it being Maunday Thursday; but the King did not wash the poor people's feet himself, but the Bishop of London did it for him.

5th. Mr. Young was talking about the building of the City again: and he told me that those few churches that are to be new built are plainly not chosen with regard to the convenience of the City; they stand a great many in a cluster about Cornhill: but that all of them are either in the gift of the Lord Archbishop, or Bishop of London, or Lord Chancellor, or gift of the City. Thus all things, even to the building of churches, are done in this world! This morning come to me the collectors for my Poll- money; for which I paid for my title as Esquire and place of Clerk of Acts, and my head and wife's servants', and their wages, 40l. 17s. And though this be a great deal, yet it is a shame I should pay no more: that is, that I should not be assessed for my pay, as in the victualling business and Tangier; and for my money, which of my own accord I had determined to charge myself with 1000l. money, till coming to the Vestry, and seeing nobody of our ablest merchants, as Sir Andrew Rickard, [A leading man in the East India Company, who was committed in 1668 by the House of Lords, during their proceedings on the petition of Skinner, VIDE JOURNALS, He purchased the advowson of his parish, St. Olave, Hart Street, and left it to trustees IN PERPETUUM, who still present the Rector. He was knighted by Charles II,. July 10th, 1662.] to do it, I thought it not decent for me to do it.

7th. To White Hall, and there saw the King come out of chapel after prayers in the afternoon, which he is never at but after having received the Sacrament: and the Court, I perceive, is quite out of mourning; and some very fine; among others, my Lord Gerard, in a very rich vest and coate. Here I met with my Lord Bellasses: and it is pretty to see what a formal story he tells me of his leaving his place upon the death of my Lord Cleveland, [Thomas Wentworth Earl of Cleveland.] by which he is become Captain of the Pensioners; and that the King did leave it to him to keep the other or take this; whereas I know the contrary, that they had a mind to have him away from Tangier. Into Moor-fields, and did find houses built two stories high, and like to stand; and must become a place of great trade till the City be built; and the street is already paved as London streets used to be.

8th. Away to the Temple, to my new bookseller's; and there I did agree for Rycaut's [This book is in the Pepysian Library.] late History of the Turkish Policy, which cost me 55s.: whereas it was sold plain before the late fire for 8s., and bound and coloured as this is for 20s.; for I have bought it finely bound and truly coloured all the figures, of which there was but six books done so, whereof the King and Duke of York and Duke of Monmouth, and Lord Arlington, had four. The fifth was sold, and I have bought the sixth.

9th. Towards noon I to the Exchange, and there do hear mighty cries for peace, and that otherwise we shall be undone; and yet do suspect the badness of the peace we shall make. Several do complain of abundance of land flung up by tenants out of their hands for want of ability to pay their rents; and by name, that the Duke of Buckingham hath 6000l. so flung up. And my father writes that Jasper Trice, upon this pretence of his tenants' dealing with him, is broke up house-keeping, and gone to board with his brother, Naylor, at Offord; which is very sad. To the King's house, and there saw "The Tameing of a Shrew," which hath some very good pieces in it, but generally is but a mean play; and the best part "Sawny," done by Lucy; and hath not half its life, by reason of the words, I suppose, not being understood, at least by me.